Lost Coast 15

I was set to call this post something like, “Mice: Round 3”. I was only going to write about MICE and the whole saga that’s developed up here in Yurtlandia. It roughly went like this:

We arrived. Mice were everywhere.

2. We set up poison traps. Mice died everywhere.

3. We got other animals.

4. Mice came back. And proliferated.

5. We were scared to poison the mice again because it would affect the food supply chain for the other animals.

6. CRAP

7. Mice really proliferated.

We actually moved the kids out of the loft because it was Out.Of.Control.

I’m talking, mice getting into all of our clothes, mouse poop all over the place, puddles of mouse pee in our dishes! Ugh. I thought of the cute little mice that I’d seen and taken pictures of, videos of too! – and was glad for the sake of bloody mercy that I wasn’t seeing them again, little shits.

I have no compunctions about grabbing them by the tail and feeding them to the ducks. Alive. The ducks pick them up, by the way, and thwack their necks with quick flick of their bills, scoop them up and in, and there they go. Mice-meal.

Anyway.

We’ve been waiting for a cat and we are planning on getting at least two of our friend’s kittens when they are weaned (and we are back from Vietnam). But the other day, I saw an ad on our local community forum for a cat… it said “she’s a mouser!” and I was sold. We went to pick her up.

So, here is where my post got diverged from calling it “Mice: Round 3” or something (snappy) like that. What happened was this: I was walking downstairs, carrying our new little cat (who is indeed a mouser! She killed mice all night, in her first night here! WOOOT!), and I was paying attention to her, not to where I was stepping. I mis-stepped, landed on the foot which has only recently fully healed from being broken in January…and sprained it. At least I hope it’s a sprain and not a fracture. Positive thinking, y’all.

I’m lying in bed now and typing this and Mikey’s dipping those instant bags of Indian food in boiling water. Dinner. My foot is duly elevated with ice packs on it and I just keep thinking of those effing mice. Maybe technically speaking, my sprain is my fault because I wasn’t watching where I was going, but I blame THEM, little defecating suckers of holey sadism.

“Hey, you guys want some ducks?”, Ken asked. “My friends lives in town and is getting in trouble with his, so he’s wondering if he can give some to you.”

Hmm. Mikey and I talked it over, I mean, ducks. We never really thought about them, but why not, right? We like duck meat, after all. So, without really looking more into it than that, we got ourselves 6 Muscovy ducks.

We really didn’t expect much besides them being perhaps somewhat interesting creatures who would enjoy our small pond?

We definitely didn’t expect them to fly on over to the defunct solar panels and hang out!

We had NO IDEA that these types of ducks hang out on lower ground during the day. They enjoy water, but in moderation. They like hanging out on the roof. And they sleep in tall trees.

Watching them is endlessly amusing

They are pretty fearless. The kids walk on up and try and chase them and stuff, but the ducks just shrug. Wag their tails. And yes, ducks really wag their tails!

Sometimes I wonder if we should just throw in the towel and become vegetarians already. At this rate, I doubt we’ll be able to kill and eat ANY of our animals. These guys, especially. Funnest creatures, ever. (why aren’t ducks more popular as pets???)

We came back from Mexico in March and we’re leaving again in November.

That means that this month – July – is our “hump month”. It’s like Wednesday is in a working week.

Hump Month just draaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaags for me, like molasses in winter.

It’s hot. It’s slow. It’s hot. I miss Mikey.

We ALL miss Mikey

It’s such a toss up, you know?

Spend all this time away from him for months – we only seem him usually for an hour or so in the morning and an hour or so at night. 7 days a week.

But then we get to be full time families for FIVE MONTHS.

Although we might be changing that too.

We love the Lost Coast so much and Mikey and Dana are doing well with the farm, so we will probably stay here year-round if the (still unfinished) yurt gets finished and we can actually live in it through a Humboldt Winter.

Yep.

And we think if THAT happens, we’ll live here, year round. We’ll travel someplace that we’ll fly to, and stay for a shorter time. We’ll do more work on the farm, and start building a retreat center here too. Cuz you want to come and visit, right?!

Hell yeah! You know you do!

We have alligator lizards galore and hummingbirds that come into the house!

And by the time you get here, I’ll have hummingbirds dripping off of me, sitting on my shoulders and eating from my hand. “The Hummingbird Whisperer”, that’s what people will call me!

Moving on, The Kids.

We have happy kids.

While I might feel like July is Hump Month and drags from here on out, I sincerely doubt they do.

They are just… fun loving little light seekers that wring the hell out of every drop of joy they can find.

I feel like my kids are the most interesting, interested children in the world

I’ll bet you think that about your own kids too, don’t you? Which goes to show that we all really do get the kids that are perfect for us. Sometimes whether we realize it or not.

Micah is back to normal – thank you SO MUCH for all the support

His voice is solid, he is happy and back to his typical level of examining how the universe works. And bionicals. And Legos. And craft/cooking/making/stuff and being complicated and yet still a little boy.

It’s all going to work out.

Meanwhile…

Hump Month!

I have too much to do. I hate all the (neverending) housework that sort of grates on my soul but if I neglect it, things are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay worse, so better to just flow into oneness with drudgery.

Tomorrow I’m going to be getting on an airplane with Katherine and we are taking our annual MomCation to Atlanta, Georgia. Yep. Because we are total nerds, our idea of a good time is going to present on Deaf Identity at the Society for Disability Studies – hang out and attend lots of cool lectures on things disability-related. Seriously, I don’t think we could be more psyched!!!

Since this post is set for auto-publish, I think you’ll be reading this when I’ll actually be on the plane, right? I hope.

In the meantime!

Lots going on at home on the Lost Coast. Last week, cherries were upon us in force and we actually got to pick and eat a bunch. Figs are almost ready for their first harvest. Mushrooms were getting big and cool and maybe a little disturbing since we have no idea what kind they are… (do you?). Kids roamed unplugged, wild, free. Chickens laid a LOT of eggs. Chickens also crossed a field, a road, a moat and a hill to come and visit us in the yurt (and I had that surreal moment of shooing them out of the house – like, WHOAH, did I really work in the corporate world in Tokyo and now I’m shooing chickens out of my yurt on a hill off the grid?!!!)